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Sat-ND, 9.9.97

Sat-ND, 9.9.97

Sat-ND, 9.9.1997 – Mullet-free zone


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Today's Headlines

LAUNCHES
Agila 2 slightly off track
SATELLITES
TWR to go extremely high
EBU delivers Elton's tribute to Diana
BUSINESS
Televisa struggle over
DIGITAL
Polish Lifestyle TV
DirecTV Japan does not really make a difference
More Oz pay TV
Microsoft TV
Radio Australia goes Real Audio
RUPERTWATCH
BSkyB fights BBC all-news channel
FEEDBACK
ASCII V/S HTML

Editorial note

Thanks to everyone who sent in their contributions – I guess your input makes this issue a bit more interesting than the last one. Not every contributor, however, prefers to be mentioned. Thank you very much anyway.



LAUNCHES

Agila 2 slightly off track

The recent launch of the Philippine satellite Agila 2 aboard a Chinese Long March rocket wasn't as as successful as expected.
As a matter of fact, the satellite did not reach its proper geostationary transfer orbit – it arrived at a point in space some 3,000 kilometres away from where it should have gone. As a consequence, precious fuel was consumed by moving the satellite to the right position.
According to Space Systems/Loral, the operation did not affect the spacecraft's expected lifetime of more than 12 years.


SATELLITES

TWR to go extremely high

And yet another multi-billion dollar satellite system was announced last week when TRW Inc. filed a license application with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.
In accordance with recent trends, it's a combo-system that comprises four spacecraft in geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) and 15 in middle Earth orbit (MEO, not Meow.) What's relatively new is the Extremely High Frequency (EHF) band TRW intends to use, or rather portions of it from 37.5 up to 50.2 GHz.
It will complement fibre-optic systems, providing high-rate trunks between regions and continents for broadband data transport, multimedia services and private networks. The TRW network is designed to meet the telecommunications industry's growing demand for ever-higher data rate services. TRW's planned EHF satellite network will provide data rates as high as 3 GBytes/s and as low as T1 rates (1.5 MBytes/s).Corporate and other wideband service users will access the satellite network from compact terminals with roof-mounted antennas.
Observers said the move looked to be TRW's answer to Hughes V-Band Expressway system. The expressed some doubts on the future of this system, indicating that Odyssey, TRW's first commercial venture, may be falling apart in a way.
In its press release, TRW Inc. said it had built more than 190 communications, scientific and military spacecraft; produced, integrated and tested more than 130 payloads; developed more than 200 advanced space instruments; and integrated some 550 experiments into spacecraft. It did not mention the planned Odyssey system.
Odyssey, which has U.S. company TRW Inc. and Teleglobe Inc. of Canada as founders, plans to use a constellation of twelve MEO, Ka-band satellites to provide world-wide phone, fax and digital data services. Odyssey announced last January that it had signed an agreement with ChinaSat, a branch of China's Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, granting ChinaSat exclusive rights to distribute Odyssey in China.


EBU delivers Elton's tribute to Diana

Elton John's new version of "Candle in the Wind" will be available from next Saturday on CD, but it can be heard on radio stations in 50 countries all over Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East as from today.
The song is a re-recording of his 1974 song about Marilyn Monroe, rewritten in honour of Diana, Princess of Wales. It's expected to become the UK's best-selling record ever once it hits the shops. You may know that, but how did the song get to radio stations with a potential audience of 400 million listeners so fast?
Today, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) transmitted the song, utilising the European Broadcasting Union's (EBU) EuroRadio satellite network, to EBU member stations.
"This network is the only available one giving CD quality sound and will make the song available to broadcasters from Iceland to Moscow, from Finland to Egypt," the EBU said in a statement.
You may want to buy the single nonetheless as all proceeds from the sale will go to the Princess Diana Memorial Fund. Elton John expects the song to raise up to US$16 million for her charities.


BUSINESS

Televisa struggle over

After the death of Azcarraga Milmo earlier this year, the future of Mexico's TV giant Televisa seemed unclear – until now.
The subsequent power struggle has now been settled. Emilio Azcarraga Jean, son of the deceased media mogul, acquired some 52 percent of Televicentro's shares which also gives him a hold on the majority of Televisa voting shares. Other shareholders reportedly doubted Azcarraga Jean's leadership qualities.
By the way, there are 38 references to Televisa in past issues of Sat-ND, so I won't tell you much more than that the company is involved in the DBS venture Sky Latin, which also includes Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and Brazil's Organizaes Globo and Tele-Communications International, Inc. It will use all 36 transponders on PAS-6 and some on PAS-5.


DIGITAL

Polish Lifestyle TV

@ Entertainment Inc. will acquire a 50 percent equity in Poland's Twcj Styl Press Publishing House for US$11.1 million.
That wouldn't be too interesting hadn't @ Entertainment Inc. planned to launch Poland's first encrypted digital satellite direct-to-home broadcasting service next year. In a statement, the company said it will use Twcj Styl's expertise and resources to create a life-style Polish language channel for the new service. Twcj Styl Press Publishing publishes Twcj Styl, a women's magazine. @ Entertainment, Inc. operates the largest multi-channel pay television Business in Poland. The company intends to develop a complementary digital direct-to-home broadcasting service with its own branded platform of proprietary Polish-language programming.


DirecTV Japan does not really make a difference

Digital satellite broadcaster DirecTV Japan Inc. has applied with the country's Posts and Telecommunications Ministry for approval of its 91-channel broadcasting service, slated for launch at the end of November on a trial basis.
The service will include more than 30 channels not aired by its rival PerfecTV Corp., which is already up and running. [Does that mean the other two thirds of the service will consist of just the same stuff DirecTV shows? Funny.]
Japan Satellite Broadcasting, operator of the WOWOW service (Sat-ND, 4.9.97,) will supply two new movie channels as well as one focusing on music and sports [once more: what a combination.]
Apart from that, DirecTV will offer eight more less exclusive channels, including CNN International, MTV Japan, Gaora Sports, Star Channel and Super Channel. [Everything else seems to be up in the air at this point, so to speak.]


More Oz pay TV

Australians may soon have a new pay television channel as the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) has granted Continental Century Pay TV Pty Ltd. a broadcasting licence.
The new licence would be for a lifestyle programming channel delivered by digital satellite broadcasting (DBS.) According to ABA chairman Peter Webb, "The ABA examined the shareholding structure of the company and found it complied with the foreign ownership provisions of the Broadcasting Services Act."


Microsoft TV

Microsoft Corp. launched a new season for Microsoft TV.
New Learning Tracks and free availability via the Internet enable viewers to easily and consistently find the information they need to stay up-to-date and increase their knowledge of new products and solutions, the company said in a statement [even though I don't quite grasp the meaning of it.]
Microsoft TV is available via the Internet (using Microsoft NetShow server, at http://www.microsoft.com/mstv/), satellite (DirecTV and Ku-band), cable TV, videotape and CD-ROM subscription. [Just ask Bill what any of these cost.]
Oh, the Learning Tracks. New this year, Microsoft TV Learning Tracks make it easy for viewers to determine which shows are most appropriate for their needs, while providing the key "next step" resources to empower them to take action with the "how to" information. Tracks are shown at the same time each month, enabling viewers to plan a consistent viewing schedule. [Sorry – still don't get it; it's still Microsoftish even though I miss references to "rich viewing experiences" and stuff like that. Anybody interested should just visit the MSTV Web site.]


Radio Australia on Real Audio

Radio Australia (RA,) the country's international broadcaster, appeared quite frequently in this so-called newsletter as it has been on the verge of being shut down more than once.
Good news for a change: Although short-wave reception has not been too difficult even in Europe, you can now also catch the English language service of RA on the Internet in Real Audio format. For further details, point your browser at
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/



RUPERTWATCH

by Dr Sarmaz

BSkyB fights BBC all-news channel

The BBC said it was going ahead with plans to launch a 24-hours news channel next autumn as part of its expanded digital program offerings in the UK despite threats by its rival BSkyB.
BSkyB offers an unscrambled news service by the name of Sky News [produced by FT TV, if I remember correctly] not only in the UK but in most European countries via the Astra satellite system. It's probably not too far-fetched to assume that the channel has more viewers on the Continent than in the UK.
Funnily, the row is not about distribution in the rest of the world but about UK cable networks. The BBC plans to distribute the service initially to UK cable networks reaching 2 million subscribers. BSkyB reportedly fears cable companies may drop Sky News in favour of the new BBC offering.
BSkyB has meanwhile threatened legal action to prevent the BBC from distributing the service free to cable TV companies. [Wait a minute... does that mean BSkyB charges cable companies for Sky News that can be received by every idiot who manages to set up a 60-centimetres dish? Chuzpe.]



FEEDBACK

ASCII V/S HTML

Yes, we're coming to an end with this discussion. More on that over the next few days.
However, I just wanted you to know that even the freeware[!] version of Eudora is capable of displaying Sat-ND in HTML format, as a number of readers have reported. (Some of them would have never noticed unless they'd subscribed to this service. And, hey, they like it that way!)
So, get the latest version of Eudora Light [presumably at http://www.eudora.com/] at no cost whatsoever and enjoy Sat-ND as it's intended to look like. Shouldn't you have Windows on your PC, that's not my fault – it was your choice to hate Bill Gates and the evil WINTEL empire anyway ;-)
In that case, ask yourself the question why your email client does not even cope with simple Internet standards such as MIME in the first place.

Copyright 09.97 by Peter C. Klanowski, pck@LyNet.De. All rights reserved.

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